MADISON—The veto power of Wisconsin’s governor is one of the nation’s strongest, but a question on the April 1 ballot asks voters if that power should be limited. In addition to selecting a supreme court justice, voters will be asked if they want to amend the state constitution to limit the governor’s partial veto authority.

According to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX), the Wisconsin constitution allows the state’s chief executive to veto bills in their entirety and appropriation bills in part. This latter power permits the governor to strike words, sentences, paragraphs, and digits from legislation. The proposed amendment would prohibit the governor from "creating a new sentence by combining parts of two or more sentences of the enrolled bill."

The governor’s veto power was last limited by constitutional amendment in 1990. That amendment prevented the governor from striking letters from multiple words to create new words.

According to WISTAX researchers, a veto in the 2005 state budget bill highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the veto power and the proposed amendment. In that bill, the governor used his veto power to reduce a 752-word section of the budget dealing with various transportation issues to 20 words authorizing a $427 million transfer from the transportation fund to the general fund. Supporters of the veto pointed out that it was necessary to fund schools and limit property tax increases. Critics argued the transfer was found nowhere in the budget passed by the legislature and, thus, created law without legislative approval.

Although the legislature can override a veto, the two-thirds majority needed can be a significant barrier, WISTAX said. Between 1931 and 2001, there were 2,405 partial vetoes of biennial budget bills, but only 37 (1.5%) were overridden, the last in 1985.